By Sammy Rozenberg
The Philippines were in a frenzy as Manny Pacquiao (42-3, 33KOs) fought his way to a twelve round unanimous decision over Oscar Larios (56-5, 36KOs) in the Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Philippines.
There were fireworks from the start as both men tried to land big punches to feel each other out in the early rounds. Larios appeared to stun Pacquiao in the third round with a left hand, but Pacquiao was able to fight his way out of trouble. In the seventh round, a short right hand sent Larios down to one knee for the first knockdown of the fight. After the seventh round, Pacquiao began to dominate Larios down the stretch with big punches that battered his face.
In the final round, Pacquiao dropped Larios again with an accumulation of punches. Once again Larios was able to beat the count and to his credit he finished a fight most experts picked to last 6 rounds at most.
The final scores were 117-110, 118-108, and 120-106, all for Pacquiao.
The next fight for Pacquiao is already set on November 18 in Las Vegas, where he will meet arch-rival Erik Morales for the third time. Both of their previous two meetings have been nothing less than spectacular.
They first met on March 19, 2005, in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and put on a fight that many thought would win "fight of the year honors," until Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo staged their epic first bout a few months later. In the first meeting, Morales used his size and reach to control Pacquiao, while at the same time being aggressive and standing his ground when Pacquiao would launch an attack.
Realizing he was behind on points, Pacquiao tried to stage a late rally, but it was too late. The final scores were still close, 115-113 across all three cards for Morales. The fight packed so much excitement that a rematch was a given. Let's not forget to mention the pay-per-view buyrate exceeded 300,000 buys, and that only made the promotional wheels for the rematch work even faster.
On September 10, 2005, Morales and Pacquiao fought in separate bouts as part of a nationally televised card at the Staples Center in California. The card was booked as nothing more than a springboard towards an already agreed upon rematch in January 2006.
Pacquiao held up his end of the bargain by stopping Hector Velazquez in six exciting rounds. Unfortunately, Morales was not so lucky. In a bout that appeared to be a safe bet for Morales to win, he was dominated by the bigger and faster Zahir Raheem. The fight with Raheem was Morales' first bout at the lightweight limit of 135 pounds.
The scheduled rematch between Pacquiao and Morales appeared to be a dead issue because of how bad Morales was dominated in his loss to Raheem, but Bob Arum of Top Rank almost immediately announced that the rematch would proceed as scheduled.
It's very rare that a pay-per-view fight proceeds when one fighter loses what is booked as his "tune up" fight to hype the actual pay-per-view. Bob Arum, head of Top Rank, felt that the fight was still attractive enough to proceed and still pull off a decent buyrate number with the legions of Mexican and Filipino fans that would purchase the event.
On January 21, 2006, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Pacquiao gained a huge measure of revenge by becoming the first fighter legitimately knock Erik Morales down and also the first to knock the tough as nails Mexican out, when he closed the show in the tenth round.
Morales started the fight strong, but it was apparent that he was fading as the rematch progressed. By the ninth round, Morales had no legs and was telling his corner that he was very tired. In the tenth, an accumulation of punches sent Morales down for the first legitimate knockdown of his career. The tank of Morales was empty, but his warrior spirit allowed him to get back to his feet to continue the fight. Sensing the end was near, Pacquiao jumped on Morales and immediately sent him crashing back to the canvas as the referee stopped the fight.
After the fight was over, Morales admitted that he was very tired from a tough training camp due to issues getting down 130 pounds. The negotiations process for making the third fight between Morales and Pacquiao were not smooth. The main issue for the majority of the negotiations was the agreed upon weight for the fight. Morales felt that it would be too hard for him to get back down to 130 pounds and wanted to hold the fight at 132. The Pacquiao camp was not willing to give Morales any advantage and stood by their decision to hold the fight at 130 pounds.
In the end, Morales had no choice but agree to fight Pacquiao at the super featherweight limit of 130. Judging by how Morales has struggled with making 130 pounds in the last few years, one has to wonder how he could possibly fight at his very best after putting his body through hell to make weight.
Pacquiao was the betting favorite by odds makers in both of their previous two meetings and is sure to be the favorite coming into the third fight. The one thing Pacquiao can not do is overlook Morales because every time the public thought Morales was on the decline of his career, he came back stronger and better to prove them wrong.
On the undercard
Jimrex Jaca (26-2-1, 11KOs) scored a technical decision over Hector Javier Marquez (28-17, 21KOs). A clash of heads in the first round produced a bad cut on Jaca, which got worse as the fight progressed. In the seventh round, the ring doctor advised the referee to stop the fight and go to the scorecards because of the bad cut on Jaca. The scores were 60-53 on all three cards, all for Jaca
Gerry Penalosa (50-5-2, 31KOs) fought a toe to toe battle with Tomas Rojas (22-9, 14KOs) to pull out a unanimous ten round decision. The scores were 97-93, 98-92, 98-93, all for Penalosa.